See a round-up of important USCF news items, including voting registration procedures, Agenda for the USCF Executive Board Meeting this coming weekend (October 30-31), important Procedures Reminders for Delegates and a call for the 2011 Executive Board Election.

Register to Vote!

Effective with the 2011 Executive Board election, voting members will have to be registered in order to be eligible to vote. Only registered eligible voting members will be sent a ballot.

In order to be qualified to register as a USCF Voting Member and vote in the 2011 USCF Executive Board election, you must be a current USCF member who will be 16 or older on June 30th, 2011.

You must register as a voting member by March 31st, 2011, in order to be eligible to vote in the 2011 Executive Board election, and you must also be a current USCF member for the entire day on May 5th, 2011. (This means that if your USCF membership is due to lapse on or before April 30th, you must renew or rejoin no later than May 4th.)

Your voter registration will lapse if your USCF membership lapses for more than 28 days, and you will need to re-register as a voting member again after you rejoin the USCF. (And you must re-register by March 31st to be eligible in 2011.)

You will need to enter your USCF ID and either your PIN or your birthdate in order to confirm your identity.

Your PIN can be found on the back cover of Chess Life or the TLA Newsletter.

Important Reminder to Delegates

The deadline for state chapters to submit the list of Delegates and Alternate Delegates for 2011 to the USCF office is Nov. 1, 2010. The method of selection is not specified in the Bylaws, but they must be current USCF members and remain current USCF members during their time in office. The apportionment of the 125 Delegates for 2011 is available at http://main.uschess.org/docs/gov/reports/2011_Delegates.txt (The only changes from the 2008-2010 apportionment are that Northern California and New Jersey each gained one Delegate while Colorado and Kentucky each lost one Delegate.)

The 2011 Delegates meeting will be in Orlando, Florida, August 6-7. Please choose Delegates who will actually attend the meetings so that we can have a quorum.

At the recent 2010 Delegates meeting, the Delegates amended the USCF Bylaws. This new bylaw states:
All Delegates and Alternate Delegates appointed by state affiliates shall submit a written statement to USCF acknowledging their acceptance.

An e-mail to the USCF office (please contact Cheryle Bruce at [email protected]) will count as a written statement to meet this requirement. It will save a lot of time if you can submit acceptance statements from your Delegates and Alternate Delegates with the appointment list you submit. We suggest that you collect such statements as soon as possible.

The newly appointed Delegates and Alternate Delegates will take office on January 1, 2011, assuming they have acknowledged their acceptance by then.

The appointment of your Delegates and Alternate Delegates will not be official until USCF receives these statements. Thus, if your Delegates delay sending in the acceptance statements they could lose their right to place motions on the advance Delegates agenda and may not receive a copy of the Delegates Call in the mail.

The USCF office would appreciate it if you make sure that all of your Delegates and Alternate Delegates have an email address on file with the USCF office, so that the office can contact them quickly, if needed.
As a reminder, the Delegates serve as the Board of Directors of the USCF, so your Delegates and Alternate Delegates should be aware of the importance of their selection.

Also, be aware that there is now a registration requirement to vote in USCF elections. All USCF members age 16 or over by June 1, 2011, will have to register to be able to vote in the 2011 USCF Executive Board election. The only exception is that all Delegates and Alternate Delegates as of August 7, 2010, are automatically registered.

In addition, the USCF will automatically register the new Delegates and Alternate Delegates your chapter names - but only when they acknowledge their acceptance of their appointment.

The deadline for voter registration for the 2011 Executive Board election is March 31, 2011.

USCF Board Meeting Agenda

The USCF Board Agenda for the EB meeting in Best Western in Crossville, TN from October 30-31 is set.

2011 Annual Samford Fellowship

The Frank P. Samford Jr. Chess Fellowship is pleased to announce its
25th consecutive annual award. The fellowship was created by the late
Frank P. Samford of Birmingham, Alabama to advance the game he loved by
identifying and assisting the most promising young chessmasters in the
United States.

Since its inception in 1987 the Samford has been successful in promoting
the chess careers of more than two dozen young Americans, many of whom
have gone on to become grandmasters, members of the U.S. Olympiad chess
team and United States chess champions. Nine current and former Samford
fellows participated in the 2010 U.S. Chess Championship, including the
tournament winner, 1994 Samford Fellow Gata Kamsky.

This fellowship is open to American chessplayers who are under the age
of 25 at the start of the fellowship, July 1, 2011, and have been
permanent residents of the U.S. for at least one year prior to that
date. Leadership of the fellowship program is provided by Mr. Samford
Jr.’s son, Frank P. Samford III of Atlanta, Georgia, with the able help
of Barbara DeMaro of the U.S. Chess Trust.

The 2011 Samford Chess Fellow will receive a monthly stipend for living
expenses, training by leading chess coaches, chess books, computer
equipment and other study materials as well as opportunities to travel
and compete in tournaments and matches at the highest levels. The value
of the fellowship (including stipend, training, study materials and
tournament travel) has been increased to $42,000 annually. It is given
for a one-year term and can be extended for a second year by mutual
consent.

The 2011 Samford Fellow will be selected by the Samford Chess Fellowship
Committee (“Committee”), consisting of Frank P. Samford III, GM Arthur
Bisguier and IM John Donaldson. Each applicant, who can be male or
female, must be able to demonstrate talent, achievement and commitment
to chess. He or she must be willing to make the effort required to
become a leading grandmaster and possible challenger for the world chess
championship. Applicants must have a chess rating (either USCF, FIDE or
both). For further details and an application form write to:

Completed applications for the 2011 Fellowship must be received no later
than January 15, 2011. We expect to announce the winner in April 2011.
All decisions by the Committee will be final.

If qualified applicants can be found, a new Fellow will be selected
every year. It is expected that the Samford Fellowship will continue to
produce very strong American chessplayers, some of whom will join the
elite group of world super-grandmasters.

The Samford Fellowship seeks to replicate the excellence and achievement
that marked the life of Frank P. Samford, Jr. Funding for this program
is made possible by the generosity of Mrs. Virginia Donovan, widow of
Mr. Samford, Jr., and by Torchmark Corporation.

Call for the 2011 USCF Executive Board Election

The U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) will hold an election in 2011 for three
at large positions on the USCF executive board. Each position is for a
term of three years.

Any current USCF member who is not a current USCF employee or designated
contractor (as defined in USCF bylaws) can be nominated for election to
the USCF executive board.

Nominations must be made by petitions containing the signatures of fifty
(50) or more voting members of the USCF of whom at least fifteen (15)
are USCF delegates representing at least five (5) states, and by payment
of a filing fee of $250 to the U.S. Chess Federation. The petition to
nominate a candidate and the filing fee must be received at the USCF
office by Friday, December 31, 2010. (Send nominations and the filing
fee to Cheryle Bruce, U.S. Chess Federation, PO Box 3967, Crossville, TN
38557-3967.)

The nomination petitions must contain the dated signatures, printed
names and USCF IDs of each voting member, and should contain the
following text: “We, the undersigned voting members of the U.S. Chess
Federation, nominate __(candidate name goes here)__ as a candidate for
election to the USCF executive board in the 2011 election. We also
consent to having our names and USCF IDs published as having signed this
petition.”

A sample nomination form will be made available on the USCF website.

Candidates must consent to be on the ballot, either by signing their own nominating petition or by separate notice to the USCF.

A voting member for this election is any current USCF member (active as
of May 4, 2011) whose membership expires on or after June 30, 2011, and
who will be age 16 or older by June 30, 2011.

Ballots will be distributed to voting members who are registered to vote
as of March 31, 2011. Ballot distribution will occur around June 1st,
and returned ballots will be counted in July. The terms will begin at
the conclusion of the 2011 Delegates Meeting and will run through the
conclusion of the 2014 Delegates Meeting.